Description of Program

"Aligning People Strategies to Organizational Objectives” is the tag line for the innovative Online Master of Science in Human Capital Development (HCD) program. The HCD curriculum is designed for human resource practitioners and managers with workforce development responsibilities. It is a cutting-edge alternative to traditional human resource and business administration MBA degrees. This program combines theory, hands-on design experience, and management skills to provide learners with a theoretical and intellectual foundation of Human Capital Development principles, methods, and techniques.

The HCD program is offered completely online through the College of Professional and Continuing Studies, because we understand the demands placed on busy working adults. The curriculum was developed primarily for managers and human resource professionals working with managers who demand and expect peak productivity from their workforce, despite a tumultuous economic environment. Accomplishing this objective without diminishing the quality of work life for an organization’s employees requires a different type of strategic thinking, which is problem-solving from an organizationally holistic point of view.

The Master of Science in Human Capital Development program will teach learners how to serve as internal or external advisers to management at all levels, especially senior management, working to transform the current workforce into the workforce needed one, three, or five years out. Students will learn to develop, implement, and measure strategic human capital plans for their organization.

Whether learners are a project manager or city manager, they will learn how to improve their workforce over time to meet their organization’s future needs. The program will teach participants how to develop organizational solutions that will strategically integrate their organization's people, mission, goals, and objectives.

This multidisciplinary curriculum is designed for busy adult learners and integrates courses from psychology, management, negotiation theory, and instructional technology to offer learners a blend of theory and practice. Students are able to focus on a specific aspect of human capital development in fields such as education, healthcare, finance, global corporations, not-for-profit, and government. Students also have the option of surveying many different human capital development initiatives throughout the world.